


Indiscretions

by gaslightgallows (hearts_blood)



Category: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: Between Episodes, F/M, Laundry, Masturbation, Wet Dream
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-02
Updated: 2015-09-02
Packaged: 2018-04-18 16:43:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4713059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hearts_blood/pseuds/gaslightgallows
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mr. Butler has a delicate question to ask his employer, about the night Inspector Robinson spent in her bed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Indiscretions

**Author's Note:**

> A deleted scene from [Varying States of Muscular Undress](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4423958). Not sure what else to do with it/how to move forward, but I am open to suggestions!
> 
> Takes place between "Death Defying Feats" and "Murder and the Maiden."

“Excuse me, Miss, if I might speak with you about a private matter?”

“Of course, Mr. B!” Phryne happily abandoned her parlour and her solicitor and followed Mr. Butler into the kitchen. To her surprise, he closed the door that led into the connecting corridor. 

“I hope you’ll pardon the liberty, Miss Fisher, but I’ve a rather delicate matter on-hand and I didn’t want us to be overheard. Especially by Mr. Copley,” he added.

Phryne smiled conspiratorially. Her firm of solicitors was one of the best in Melbourne, but her usual woman of business was on holiday. Old Copley was competent enough, but rather fussy and prone to gossip. She’d never said as much to Mr. Butler, but of course he knew. “Very astute,” she said, her tone of utter solemnity belying her merry expression. She perched comfortably on a corner of the kitchen table. “Now, what’s on your mind?”

Mr. Butler folded his hands behind his back and fixed his employer with an air of fatherly concern. It was a testament to the strength of their friendship that Mr. Butler _could_ assume an air of fatherly concern without making Phryne want to throw him out a window, unlike her actual father, whom she was doing her best to dismiss from her mind just as she had dismissed him from her house. “I was sorting the laundry to be sent out, and I noticed that the pajamas that Inspector Robinson was wearing the night he was indisposed, the ones we keep for unexpected gentleman houseguests, were somewhat… awry.”

“‘Awry,’ Mr. Butler?”

“Yes, Miss. Specifically, in the region of the trousers.” He raised his eyebrows with an expression of professional distress that masked a very real and unprofessional apprehension. “As you were in the room with the Inspector that night, perhaps you might know…”

“Oh!” Phryne realized, with a smile that was a poor mask for the acute embarrassment she was feeling, both on Mr. Butler’s behalf for finding the incriminating stain on Jack’s borrowed pajamas, and for Jack himself, who had awoken that morning with no idea that he had not been alone in bed, or that he had been somewhat _indiscreet_ in his alcohol-and-nerve-tonic-induced state. It certainly wasn’t Jack’s fault that he’d had an erotic dream whilst in her bed, or that while he hadn’t been talking loudly in his sleep, he hadn’t been precisely quiet, either… “It’s nothing, Mr. Butler. But I believe that the Inspector… while asleep… experienced…” She hunted for a dainty word. Mr. Butler was not the sort of man to be affronted by a vulgarism if the situation warranted it, but he was above all things devoted to the rituals of propriety. “An emission.”

Tobias Butler’s frown of concern immediately uncreased. “Ah,” he said, supremely understanding. “Say no more, Miss. I do hope you aren’t offended by my forwardness in asking, but I was concerned that liberties might have been taken on the Inspector’s part. Entirely due to his unfortunate state,” he hastened to add. “I would never suspect Inspector Robinson of such behavior when he was in his right senses.”

“No offense taken, Mr. Butler,” said Phryne, with a regretful little smile. “I was there with him all night, and nothing even mildly indecent happened.” _More’s the pity,_ she thought, although listening to a dreaming Jack moaning her name softly while his hand was down his pajama trousers had certainly been better than nothing. She felt a little hurt that her trusted retainer could have imagined anything worse of Jack. Still, he had only the evidence to hand, which admittedly did look suspicious, and her safety was part of his job. She sighed and hopped up from the table, mentally steeling herself to rejoin her dowdy solicitor.

“Oh, and Miss?” Mr. Butler’s expression was now one of strictly proper innocence. “Shall I have new pajamas laid in for the Inspector? For the next time he spends the night. I noticed as I was dressing him that evening that the ones we have on-hand are somewhat small for a man of his… stature.”

Phryne’s red lips spread into a slow, impish grin. “ _Excellent_ notion, Mr. Butler,” she commended him, privately deciding to raise his salary yet again, “but d’you know, I don’t believe that will be necessary.”

After all, the next time Jack ended up in her bed, she intended that there would be no need for pajamas.


End file.
